May in Ohio. Sunshine (usually), flowers, bright green foliage, the end of a grueling academic year and the beginning of that elusive treasure called "summer" that, in May, seems to languidly stretch before me, a wide-open haven for reflection and composing and practice...until reality sets in and I remember the end-of-year reports that are due in mid-June, those mid-summer conferences, overdue family visits, that late-summer course I am teaching, the website updates (like this one!) that I have put off, the scores and computer files that need to be organized and submitted to publishers, the residency applications I need to submit, that article I want to write, next-year new-course syllabus-preps...And so my summer begins to take shape. The bar lines are set. I hope you will accompany me this summer as I fill in the spaces between those bar lines. Hopefully, by September, those spaces will be full and what has been written between the bar lines will have meaning and direction. And now, with no time for procrastination, I must get to work. But first, a walk outside...​